Hanoi Police Director: Every type of house must have a fire prevention plan

The city will require projects that do not need to be approved or accepted to have a fire prevention and fighting plan, Lieutenant General Nguyen Hai Trung said.

On the afternoon of September 20, at a meeting with voters in Tay Ho district before the 6th session of the 15th National Assembly, Mr. Trung said that after the mini apartment fire in Khuong Ha, the Hanoi Police advised the Chairman of the City People's Committee to issue a directive on fire prevention and fighting (PCCC). This directive for the first time clearly states that all residents living in the area must be guaranteed fire prevention and fighting requirements regardless of the type of housing.

Lieutenant General Nguyen Hai Trung, Director of Hanoi City Police. Photo: Hoang Phong — Lieutenant General Nguyen Hai Trung, Director of Hanoi City Police Department, talks about fire prevention and fighting at a meeting with voters in Tay Ho district on the afternoon of September 20. Photo: *Hoang Phong*

"It doesn't matter if it's an apartment building, social housing or resettlement, because this is related to human rights protected by the Constitution," Mr. Trung said, adding that even though the project is not subject to approval, it still has to have a fire prevention and rescue plan.

According to current regulations, fire safety inspection and acceptance only apply to individual houses with a height of 7 floors or more or with more than one to three basements; individual houses combined with production and business with floor area for production and business purposes accounting for more than 30% of the total floor area.

The head of the city police said that after inspecting three Party organizations in Thanh Xuan district at the request of the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee, "we will definitely handle the responsibilities of organizations and individuals involved in state management of fire prevention and fighting."

According to General Trung, the most common cause of fires is electricity, and fires that cause major damage often occur in crowded places such as shopping malls, karaoke establishments, mini apartments, etc. For example, 21 years ago, the fire at the HITC shopping mall in Ho Chi Minh City killed 60 people, the most since statistics were kept. The recent mini apartment fire in Hanoi ranked second with 56 deaths, followed by the karaoke bar fire in Binh Duong (33 people) and the karaoke bar in Cau Giay - Hanoi (13 people).

Voter Vu Phi Hung, Tay Ho, raised a question about fire prevention and fighting work. Photo: Hoang Phong — Voter Vu Phi Hung, Tay Ho district, raised a question about fire prevention and fighting at a meeting with the Hanoi National Assembly delegation on the afternoon of September 20. Photo: *Hoang Phong*

"Hanoi's streets are small, the alleys are narrow, and the houses are crowded, so planning a fire prevention system is very difficult," said Mr. Trung, who said that in fire prevention work, there is the concept of "golden hour", which means that a fire must be extinguished within 5 minutes of the fire breaking out, and after that time, the main thing is to prevent the fire from spreading. Therefore, on-site fire fighting is very important, and each family must be equipped with fire prevention, rescue and first aid equipment and skills. In addition to the police, there are also specialized fire fighting forces, facilities and models of inter-family fire prevention teams or public fire fighting points.

On the same day, the Hanoi Party Committee issued a directive on key fire prevention and fighting tasks, emphasizing that heads of Party committees, authorities, agencies, and enterprises must take responsibility when fires and explosions occur, causing serious damage to people and property within their leadership and management scope.

On the night of September 12 to the early morning of September 13, a 10-story mini apartment building with 45 apartments on Khuong Ha Street, Khuong Dinh Ward caught fire, killing 56 people and injuring 37 others.

According to the construction permit issued by Thanh Xuan district in March 2015, this project was only allowed to build a 6-storey single-family house, with a first-floor construction area of 167 m2, a density of 70%, and a total building height of 20.2 m. However, the investor turned the low-rise housing project into a 10-storey mini-apartment building with a construction area of 230 m2, divided into 45 apartments for sale.

The owner of the mini apartment Nghiem Quang Minh was prosecuted and detained for 4 months for violating fire prevention and fighting regulations under Article 313 of the Penal Code.

Vo Hai

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